DIY: Interior LED swap (cluster, HVAC, switches, window, *steering wheel)

[97BlackAckCL]

Here's how the led looks like and back of the switch, if you look inside of the switch you'll see the clear plexi that points to each h2 h4 and l4 and also suppose to light the knob up. You have the unwind the led from the bulb holders, the place the led at the hole, then feed the ends to the neo4 holder and bend the wires back to make contact, test for correct polarity b4 final install.

Not sure I know what you mean about unwinding the LED's and bending things, you mean move them off the bulb? Do you have a pic of that?

 

[riceandpho]

Not sure I know what you mean about unwinding the LED's and bending things, you mean move them off the bulb? Do you have a pic of that?

Yea move the leds from the neo5 holder to neo4 holder like the first page.

 

[Jeffy]

Not sure who told you it was a resister issue, I swapped everything in my cluster to red with no issues.

Did you install the leds with correct polarity? Even if one is wrong, this could cause an entire group to not light up due to the fact the leds are in series.

Did you correctly solder the leds to the board? I recently fixed a dudes cluster that just had globs of solder on the pad/led and it appears to be a cold solder as well.

Other than that, what wattage iron did you use? Did you burn up an led or the board?

I installed them all correct polarity, soldering was good ("good" for my skills). I've had no issues changing out the entire rest of the board, just the red LEDs giving me trouble (I even removed a white one I had working, replaced with red and no good. Took the red off, put the white back on and it's fine)

Oznium's websites states white/blue/green LEDs (which I used on same board) as voltage 3.0 or higher. The red and amber both show voltage as 1.6 or higher, so I'm figuring this is an incorrect voltage or resistor issue?

I was only going to put the red LEDs as needle illumination anyways, so I've just decided to do a full swap to blue for those, and re-paint the needles.
I would still like to know if anybody can explain the issue with red to me though.

 

[yosh2000]

I have never had an issue with red leds. I have done a ton of tacomas over the years. I did my SR5 cluster in a red with no issues. Of all my years of swapping clusters, I have never had to mess w resistors.

We're you using the same red led when testing? Maybe a one off bad led?

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Yea move the leds from the neo5 holder to neo4 holder like the first page.

interesting...

 

[Jeffy]

I have never had an issue with red leds. I have done a ton of tacomas over the years. I did my SR5 cluster in a red with no issues. Of all my years of swapping clusters, I have never had to mess w resistors.

We're you using the same red led when testing? Maybe a one off bad led?

I tried 2 different red LEDs. I'll try a couple more, maybe I messed them up or happened to get two bad ones in a row. I would like to get them to work, because I pulled the LED that illuminates when in reverse gear, and had to replace it with pink for now :cheer2:

 

[Jeffy]

I tried 2 different red LEDs. I'll try a couple more, maybe I messed them up or happened to get two bad ones in a row. I would like to get them to work, because I pulled the LED that illuminates when in reverse gear, and had to replace it with pink for now :cheer2:

Well, I figured it out and got them working. Long story short, it was a combination of a few bad LEDs, my poor soldering skills, and all LEDs marked with incorrect polarity.

I'm not sure why, but every red one I got had the polarity marked backwards. The first few I tried were bad and/ or I messed them up while trying to get them to work, once I tried again today with the polarity flipped they all worked fine :high5:

 

[yosh2000]

Excellent, glad you got it figured out.

Are you sure the polarity corner was incorrect...sounds like something fishy w that.

 

[Jeffy]

Excellent, glad you got it figured out.

Are you sure the polarity corner was incorrect...sounds like something fishy w that.

Yup, quite sure. All other LEDs on the board have the notch facing one way, the red LEDs all face the opposite way (only the replacement reds, not the original ones). Odd and confusing, that's what threw me off at first.

Another question- what did people use to paint the needles after changing their color? I tried a very light coat of blue spray paint with blue LEDs, but it didn't work very well. The needle is nice and bright at the base but gets too dark near the tip

 

[CookieRoe]

Yup, quite sure. All other LEDs on the board have the notch facing one way, the red LEDs all face the opposite way (only the replacement reds, not the original ones). Odd and confusing, that's what threw me off at first.

Another question- what did people use to paint the needles after changing their color? I tried a very light coat of blue spray paint with blue LEDs, but it didn't work very well. The needle is nice and bright at the base but gets too dark near the tip

Not sure what kind of paint was used (post below mentions using Testor Model paint), but previous successful "blue needle" was done by painting them blue while the LEDS that light it are WHITE.

check it: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-g...es-window-*steering-wheel-64.html#post1705030

 

[Jeffy]

Not sure what kind of paint was used (post below mentions using Testor Model paint), but previous successful "blue needle" was done by painting them blue while the LEDS that light it are WHITE.

check it: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-g...es-window-*steering-wheel-64.html#post1705030

Excellent, thank you!
I'm gonna play around with white LED/ blue paint and blue LED/White paint and see which I prefer.

Just to clarify- only the back of the needle gets painted, correct? I think that was my mistake, I painted the front of it and it's blocking too much light and making it look uneven.

 

[CookieRoe]

Excellent, thank you!
I'm gonna play around with white LED/ blue paint and blue LED/White paint and see which I prefer.

Just to clarify- only the back of the needle gets painted, correct? I think that was my mistake, I painted the front of it and it's blocking too much light and making it look uneven.

Yikes, I dunno man. Ask [MENTION=30225]yosh2000[/MENTION] , he has more experience on these that I do.

 

[yosh2000]

Just to clarify- only the back of the needle gets painted, correct? I think that was my mistake, I painted the front of it and it's blocking too much light and making it look uneven.

yep, only the back of hte needle. basically you are just putting paint there so that the light from the LEDs has something to bounce off of. think of it this way, if you shine a light at the end of a piece of plexiglass, nothing shows up. if you go ahead and paint the back or frost it, the light shows up.

whenever i have done blue needles, i always paint the backside with white. make to to only paint the backside of the needle that is visible. meaning, do not paint any of the needle that is behind the black/gray knob at the base. this will only restrict any light from getting out.

 

[Jeffy]

Anybody know where I can pick up a new speedometer needle for a limited? I messed mine up a little and while you can't tell much, my OCD is really kicking in and I want a new one to fix it. I really don't feel like spending 100 bucks for an entire gauge cluster on ebay though...


By the way, I got a really good "true blue" needle look that I love by using blue LEDs and painting the back of the needle white.

 

[yosh2000]

Unfortunately salvaging from a cluster is the only way to get em. Depending on your model, needles from other toyota vehicles way work, but do your research

 

[Jeffy]

Unfortunately salvaging from a cluster is the only way to get em. Depending on your model, needles from other toyota vehicles way work, but do your research

Yea I looked at the parts diagram and they're included in the entire cluster, I think I'm SOL. I'm hoping maybe somebody here has an extra one they wouldn't mind parting with.

 

[yosh2000]

Oh, you're a limited...yep, pretty much gonna have to purchase a cluster, no other Toyota uses those needles from my understanding.

 

[Jeffy]

Oh, you're a limited...yep, pretty much gonna have to purchase a cluster, no other Toyota uses those needles from my understanding.

Yup.... It's really not that messed up, like i said, just my OCD driving me crazy about it.

I'm just posting hoping somebody might randomly have an extra one. No way am I dropping 100 bucks to fix such a minor thing

 

[CookieRoe]

guess what I'm doing................... quest continues..............

Yup.... It's really not that messed up, like i said, just my OCD driving me crazy about it.

I'm just posting hoping somebody might randomly have an extra one. No way am I dropping 100 bucks to fix such a minor thing

You see, that would drive me insane. $100 is a small price to pay for one's sanity. At least mine.

Here I am (wifey thought it was funny that I'm working on this small project, but like I mentioned several pages back, months actually, that this is a quest) working on what 99% of people here think is a complete waste of time. That's ok and good, I'll get it to work and it will make me happy (small things in life that count, right, LOL), and I'll share with my "virtual buds" here on t4r.org. :yo:

ps: please don't mock my Ford Tshirt, it was free at a car show.

 

[riceandpho]

You see, that would drive me insane. $100 is a small price to pay for one's sanity. At least mine.

Here I am (wifey thought it was funny that I'm working on this small project, but like I mentioned several pages back, months actually, that this is a quest) working on what 99% of people here think is a complete waste of time. That's ok and good, I'll get it to work and it will make me happy (small things in life that count, right, LOL), and I'll share with my "virtual buds" here on t4r.org. :yo:

ps: please don't mock my Ford Tshirt, it was free at a car show.

you need one of these Ed, 9100 Fortiflex Heavy Duty Flex Shaft Tool / Model: 9100
easier to use i think. too bad i dont have a dremel, i got a old ass rotozip that worked fine.